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No. 3 UCLA, St. Mary's Up Next For Cougars
BYU looks to stay unbeaten against Bruins.
Sept. 24, 2002 PROVO, Utah - The Cougar women's soccer team returns to California Wednesday to face No. 3 UCLA at 2 p.m. in Los Angeles. UCLA boasts a 6-1-0 record after a 4-0 win over Cal State Northridge, which also lost to BYU, 2-1. The Cougars have never lost to UCLA, having defeated the Bruins 3-1 in 1997 and 2-0 in 1998 in a NCAA tournament game. Wednesday's meeting will mark the third time BYU has travelled to Los Angeles to play UCLA. St. Mary's (2-4-1) comes to Provo on Friday, Sept. 27 to square off against the Cougars in a 7 p.m. kickoff. Like the Cougars, the Gaels made it to the second round of the NCAA College Cup last year. This is the first-ever meeting between the two teams.
UP NEXT
ROAD WARRIORS
SCOUTING NO. 3 UCLA UCLA is led by freshman forward Katie Rivera, who has a team-high five goals and is second on the team in assists with three. Another freshman, Iris Mora of Cancun, Mexico, also has five goals off of 12 shots.
SCOUTING ST. MARY'S St. Mary's is led by sophomore midfielder Sarah Burgess, who has three goals on the season. Keeper Ruth Montgomery has notched 30 saves while giving up seven goals.
NO. 20 USC SLIPS BY COUGARS 1-0 USC's lone goal came in the 32nd minute when senior midfielder Ali Fennell split two Cougar defenders and knocked the ball past Cougar keeper Mandy Gott. The Trojans took 12 shots in the first half, compared to three for BYU. "They had a bit of a run in the first half," said BYU assistant coach Chris Watkins. "But we settled down quite a bit in the second half and put some pressure on them." The second half saw the Cougars repeatedly attempt to break through USC's defense. BYU out-shot USC 7-3 in the second half, and Gott recorded seven saves for the game. Junior forward/midfielder Lydia Ojuka nearly tied the game with a diving header that went just wide of the goal in the waning seconds of the game. "It's disappointing to lose, but we had four freshman out there on the field at the end of the game trying to win it," said Watkins. "We knew USC was a good team."
CAMPBELL'S LAST-MINUTE GOAL LIFTS COUGS OVER MATADORS With 24 minutes into the first half, freshman Brooke Bowman capitalized on a pass that went off the post to put the Cougars up 1-0. All-American Aleisha Cramer Rose was credited with the assist, her first of the season. In the second half the Cougars went on the attack, doubling the Matadors efforts in shots 14-7. BYU had its share of good looks but was unable to capitalize. With under five minutes left in the game, CSN's Angie Veliz headed in a corner kick from Brynne Blumstein to tie the game at 1-1. Campbell was able to put away a loose ball caused by senior forward Jeni Viernes with 1:58 left on the clock and seal the win for BYU. "We played much better on the attack in the last couple weeks," said head coach Jennifer Rockwood. "The effort was there and we are on the right track."
2002 SCHEDULE PITS COUGARS AGAINST NATION'S BEST No. 2-ranked University of Portland opened the Cougars' season at South Field on August 30, losing 2-1 to BYU. Then BYU traveled to Wolverine country to take on No. 18 Michigan in Ann Arbor, losing 2-1. No. 18 Kentucky defeated the Cougars 2-0 in Provo, while St. Mary's will make its first-ever appearance at South Field on Sept. 27. BYU took to the road to battle its remaining NCAA tournament participants with a trip to Los Angeles for matchups against USC, which resulted in a 1-0 loss, and now face UCLA Sept. 25. The Cougars also head to South Bend for a first-ever meeting with Notre Dame. The Cougar team spends the first three weeks of October on the road, returning to South Field on Oct. 24. The team's itinerary includes trips to Washington, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico. In MWC action, the Cougars will spend most of conference play on the road, hosting only UNLV and SDSU. Beginning Nov. 6, by virtue of winning last year's Championships in Las Vegas, BYU hosts this year's Mountain West Conference Championships with the title game scheduled for Sat., Nov. 9. The MWC champion gets an automatic bid into the 2002 NCAA Women's College Cup Championships which begin on Nov. 13.
COUGARS GRAB THIRD CONSECUTIVE MWC TITLE The streak began in 1999, when BYU posted a 2-1 victory over San Diego State University to win the tournament title. In 2000, the Cougars beat Utah 6-1 to again claim the title. Last year, UNLV became the next victim in BYU's incredible run, losing 2-1 to the Cougars in the MWC tournament championship game. For the 2002 season, the conference coaches also voted the Cougars to win the regular season and championship crown.
CREAM OF THE CROP All-Americans Brooke Bowman (Plano, TX) and Jennifer Henry Fielding (Pasco, WA) are two of the highly touted players. Bowman and Fielding will add more strength and depth to BYU's team along with the other seven very experienced and accomplished freshmen. Jamie Rendich and Brooke Thulin, from Southern California have trained and played in one of the country's most talented pools of players. Their So. Cal Blues club is considered one of the top youth clubs in the country with a National Youth Championship to prove it. They have also both represented Southern California on their State ODP team and on the Region IV ODP team. Two of the Utah recruits, Ashley Smith and Natalie Evans, along with sophomore keeper Amanda Gott, will be vying for the starting goalkeeper spot.
SOUTH FIELD BYU's home field advantage is enhanced by the presence of a large and vocal Cougar crowd. Attendance at South Field consistently ranks among the best in the nation. Last year, BYU ranked 12th among national attendance leaders with an average of 1,087 fans filling the seats at South Field.
THE ROCKWOOD FILE Under Rockwood's tutelage, a long list of All-American soccer players have emerged from BYU's program. Among them are two that are current players of the newly organized Women's United Soccer Association. Maren Hendershot plays for the San Jose Cyberrays and Shauna Rohbock with the San Diego Spirit. Other noteworthy All-Americans include Aleisha Cramer Rose, Staci Reynolds and Michelle Peterson. During the 2000 season, she became the first MWC coach to eclipse the 100-win total on Sept. 23 with a 2-0 victory over Milwaukee-Wisconsin. Entering the 2000 season, coach Rockwood was ranked fifth among active coaches by winning percentage. She has averaged 18.6 wins per season over the past five years, which ranks second behind only Anson Dorrance of North Carolina for wins per season. Dorrance has won an average of 22.2 matches per season. Prior to becoming the head coach, Rockwood led BYU's highly successful club soccer team for six years. In her final two years, she took her teams to first place in the Western National Collegiate Club Soccer Association (NCCSA) championships and to second place in the NCCSA national championships. The Lake Oswego, Oregon, native was a three-sport athlete in soccer, basketball and track. After one year at Ricks College on a basketball scholarship, she transferred to BYU and was four-year starter at center midfield on the Cougars' club team. Rockwood has also coached in the Utah ODP , the youth club's and high school levels.
COUGARS LOVE COUGARS
DEFENSE GARNERS NATIONAL RECOGNITION
BYU TO HOST 2002 MWC TOURNAMENT
OPENING ROUND: Wednesday, Nov. 6
SEMIFINALS: Thursday, Nov. 7
FINALS: Saturday, Nov. 9
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